A year ago there was no startup scene in Sri Lanka to think of. Now it seems that everybody wants a piece. Personally, I think Sri Lanka is the, ideal testing ground for the Indian market, and Indian investors. A good product can make decent money here, and things are easier to setup and run here. Plus less public urination. Then, if the business model is solid, you can port it to India, and make millions. Of dollars.

India is now the world’s top importer of arms. Not the top spender mind you, that’s still the US by far, but India is the top importer. Also, don’t get China’s drop in the importer rankings twisted. They’re just making their own weapons at home.

This is a very interesting interview with Cho S. Ramaswamy, editor of the (Indian) Tamil weekly Thuglak. He says: “Suppose the US or some other country sponsors a similar resolution tomorrow on Kashmir. Are we going to honour it? We will say that the UN has no right to do this. The LTTE was the most powerful and ruthless terrorist group.” This is in regards to the ongoing brouhaha about America’s chiding UN resolution, even though they have their own issues with the UN.

After the gang-rape of a 23 year old in the Delhi satellite, the Gurgaon administration has asked women to just not work at night. They’ve called for commercial establishments (like bars) to send female employees home by 8 pm. There have obviously been bad reactions. Because it’s stupid.

Official statistics released in a court case estimate the number of homosexuals in India at about 3 million. I think that’s a bit low. Some estimates (from the west) are that 1-5% of the population is gay, tho those are really rough. Estimating from estimates, that would mean that 12-60 million of Indians could be gay.

Some Indian census data is out, via The Hindu. It’s interesting. Indians are moving out of shared homes into nuclear families, but still shitting in the streets and fields. At the same time, most have electricity, banking facilities and phones. India’s not doing so bad, but the basics are persistently dire.

This year’s Kingfisher Calendar was shot in Sri Lanka, at Jetwing Sri Lanka. They say Jetwing, so I’m assuming they’re referring to the chain of hotels rather than one in particular. Yes, that’s right. Here’s a few photos and their locations. It’s very well done, and good for Sri Lanka. And the girls are hot.

In a good way. Some of the boys from Sri Lanka’s local fight night scene are competing in an Indian martial arts tournament this weekend. It’s called Super Fight League and all of Bollywood will be there.

The word surf seems to be derived from the word suffe, a reference to the coastline of India, but the sport isn’t very popular there. Despite having 7,500 km of coastline, India is not known for beaches, let alone for surfing. Slowly, however, it seems that a surf culture is emerging mixed in parts with Hindu spirituality.

Happy birthday to the late Neelan Tiruchelvam, peacemaker, killed by the LTTE in 1999. He would have been 68 yesterday. His trust staged a performance of Ravanama by Maya Krishna Rao. It was… interesting?